Topic: Middle East

Anti-Syrian government protesters shout slogans as they protest after Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, on March 25. (AP)
The unprecedented wave of protests in Syria have violently continued and spread across the country for a second week.
Syria’s importance to the Middle East is vital. They are supporters of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, all condemned…

As the epidemic of revolution spreads across the Arab world, Yemen finds itself the next victim.
Political turmoil and disputes between radicals and non-radicals alike are splintering the Arab nation.
Much of the initial and primary focus has been centered on President Abdullah Saleh.
In office since 1978, President Saleh has found himself a victim…

Egypt's Coptic Christian leader Pope Shenouda III, center, is greeted by hundreds of Christians as he leaves a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, on March 19, after he voted in a referendum on constitutional amendments. (AP)
After Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign on Feb. 11, the military suspended the constitution and appointed…

Libyan rebels celebrating at a checkpoint in eastern Libya on March 27. (AP)
Ever since coalition bombs starting falling on forces loyal to Muammar Gadhafi, the loyalists have been retreating.
The U.S.-supported rebels, who had been pushed right up to their capital of Benghazi, seized the opportunity and swiftly advanced westward. Such was the initial…

Picketers protest the American involvement in Libya on March 23 in San Francisco. (AP)
I don’t blame Americans for supporting U.S. military intervention in Libya. After all, when cloaked in the guise of multilateralism and the moral superiority of a humanitarian cause, intervention in Libya sounds like a responsible use of military power.
However, the…

President Barack Obama, right, and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi pictured during the G8/G5 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, on July 9, 2009. (AP). (AP)
“We don’t want and we won’t accept any foreign intervention on our soil. We started this revolution, and we will finish it.”
Those are the words of Abdul Hafidh Gogha, the spokesman…

Protesters carrying a pre-1969 Libyan flag and holding up a banner during a demonstration against Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi outside Downing Street in London on Feb. 22. (AP)
As Egypt continued to take significant steps earlier this week toward a new government, its neighbor, Libya, continued to erupt with protests and the violent response of…

It’s hardly been eight years since the United States invaded Iraq, toppled Saddam Hussein and installed a democratic regime in a region where authoritarian rule is the norm. And now the entire Middle East, from Algeria to Yemen, is being rocked by anti-government protesters demanding that their leaders step aside and make way for democracy.…

Both the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions may not have been possible without Mark Zuckerberg.
Anti-government protestors used Facebook to organize huge demonstrations in the streets of Tunis and Cairo. Then when Ben Ali and Mubarak began cracking down on media outlets, protestors used hashtags on Twitter to let the world know what was going on.…

How important is the promotion of democracy to U.S. foreign policy?
To many Americans, this nation’s main mission is to promote freedom and democracy throughout the world. And as revolution takes hold in Egypt, and protests continue to plague Jordan, Americans have been annoyingly reminded that the United States is thoroughly enmeshed in the business…

In December 2010, protests broke out in Tunisia, eventually paving the way for the ousting of longtime President Ben Ali by the end of January 2011.
His ousting then sparked a revolution in Egypt against the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, as well as anti-government demonstrations in Algeria, Yemen and Jordan.
Cases of self-immolation…

An anti-government protester wears face paint in the colors of the Egyptian flag during the continuing demonstration in Tahrir square in downtown Cairo, Egypt, on Feb. 1. (AP)
Egypt President Hosni Mubarak is a man with an incredible knack for survival. In his 30-year rule of the country, Mubarak has faced five assassination attempts and…

For decades, Egypt was the juggernaut of the Arab world. As the most populous and powerful Arabic country, it was Israel’s primary military foe. And its leader, the legendary Gamal Abdul Nasser, united Arabs and gave hope to the people of Palestine.
But in a peace treaty brokered by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, Egypt…

It was embarrassment that drove Mohamed Bouzazi to douse himself in paint thinner and light himself on fire. After the apples that he sold to support his family were confiscated by government workers; after he was slapped in the face and publicly beaten by them – twice; after one of them insulted his dead father;…

A protestor stands in front of the prime minister’s office in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, on Jan. 25 to demand the removal of members of the ousted president’s regime still in the government. (AP)
Tunisians took to the streets in late December to protest against high food prices, limited political and social freedom, unemployment…

Recently renewed yet fragile peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine became even more fragile Sunday when a 10-month building ban on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank ended at midnight.
Despite flak from his coalition of right-wing parties, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pressured by the U.S., agreed to the building ban last November. …

After indirect peace discussions between Israel and Palestine stalled in March with Israel’s controversial decision to construct 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem, the Arab League has voted to resume indirect peace proximity talks.
These talks, which the United States is set to mediate, are scheduled to resume this week. The announcement to expand Israeli control…

With 325 seats in the Iraqi Parliament up for election, approximately 59 to 62 percent of eligible citizens turned out to vote. This figure, although notably less than the 75 percent of people who voted in 2005, represents those who cast their votes despite several violent attacks or threats, including one that claimed the lives…

After years of turmoil, the tension between Israel and Lebanon has once again heightened with the announcement by Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri that his government will support Hezbollah – a Lebanese political organization which both Israel and the United States consider a terrorist group – should violence transpire.
This declaration came days before the…

Iran has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent – the level considered to be “highly enriched” and the threshold for setting off a nuclear reaction. Iranian Press-TV reported that the country formally informed the United Nations nuclear-watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, of its intentions on Monday.
This announcement comes on the heels of the…

Yemen, a Middle Eastern nation bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia, is perhaps one of the oldest civilizations still in existence today. However, with its long existence comes a history of turmoil and strife that has led to present day ramifications.
The northern and southern regions formed the Republic of Yemen in 1990 following the fall…

In Obama’s speech to the Muslim World in Egypt this past summer, he spoke about how a nuclear Iran could trigger “a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.”
But here’s the unfortunate truth: the Middle East nuclear arms race has already…

The discovery of Iran’s secret nuclear facility, with its small size and hidden location, suggests that Iran is, indeed, pursuing nuclear weapons. This makes the “military option” of bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities a much more viable alternative. But an attack on Iran could potentially ignite a regional war in the Middle East. The key factor…

A little over a week ago, the international community was shocked to learn that Iran has been building a small underground nuclear facility that they have kept secret for years.
President Barack Obama disclosed this information standing next to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a speech at the G-20…

There is a power vacuum in the Arab Middle East. The region effectively has no leader that the people are proud of and can look up to. With the exception of the newly democratic yet unstable Iraq, the rulers of Arab countries are either authoritarian dictators – like Mubarak of Egypt or Assad of Syria…